We have officially gotten to the point where it is impossible for me to write diaries for all the weekly canvasses going on in the Senate Swing States. But that’s one reason why I do a weekly wrap-up of all the canvass’ stats in my “Just the Stats” diaries.
The primaries are now concluded in North Carolina which means we are walking with new lit that features the Democratic nominee, Cheri Beasley. We are still knocking on doors in the silver “Toss Up” Congressional District (NC-13; Open (R+3)) south of Raleigh and in Robeson County and now doing pop-up canvassing in areas (like Robeson County) that have historical examples of voter suppression.
153 volunteers came out to knock on doors on Saturday for Hope Springs from Field PAC. We continue to use our Issues Questionnaire as a conversational tool, offered Constituent Service Request forms and left our lit at every door on our lists.
Gas prices topped our list of concerns, taking over from Inflation with the voters we talked to on Saturday. The Economy was the second most frequent response and Crime was third. We found three new potential volunteers at the doors this week, to go along with the 8 potential volunteers who asked to sign up at our Election Protection Incident tables on Election Day. Something in the air, I suppose.
Voter views of President Biden continue to fall. 55% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of President Biden in Florida on Saturday. 17% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing. Governor Cooper (who is term-limited and can’t run for re-election) had 58% job approval from the voters who answered their doors and responded to the questionnaire. Democratic Senate nominee Cheri Beasley rose to 71% approval.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights, and, in March, we will begin an even bigger effort. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. But the reason we won the Iowa Caucus in 2008 was because we registered voters and then turned them out! The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. At every door, we leave a piece of “show the flag” lit, something that tells them we were there and hopefully reinforces the Democratic brand. The lit focuses on the things voters told us were important to them last fall, aiming to appeal to every voter. Far and away the number one issue that the voters we talked to in the Senate Swing States last year was inflation or price increases, and I imagine that concern has only increased.
Door to Door canvassing is the most effective way to reach voters but it is doubly important now since Democrats didn’t really do in-person canvassing in 2020. And, yet, we have found that voters missed that kind of in-person contact and ability to have a conversation about political issues and concerns. Our own experience knocking on doors in Texas and the Senate Swing States last year was that many Democrats and Independents felt more confident supporting candidates who sent people out into their neighborhoods asking for their support.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races in 2022 as well as districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year. As not every state has completed their re-maps, re-districting hasn’t yet made those opportunities/needs apparent. The Senate map started out clear. They may be changing. There are places we need to defend (Georgia and Arizona) and there are opportunities. North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are such opportunities. We’d like to get into Nevada, too, and perhaps others that appear more competitive at that time — if we can generate the resources needed to do so. There is a lot of work to be done!
Especially in those areas, but really everywhere, we are also asking people who open their doors about whether they need services delivered to their neighborhood. 50 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms last Saturday. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the Constituent Service Request forms and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
Voter Suppression and Election Protection will be our central focus after Labor Day in 2022. 22 voters we talked to on Saturday filled out Incident Reports, providing witness accounts of problems they saw (mostly) in the primary election.
But the reason we organized as a federal PAC is so that we can get poll watcher credentials for November 2022. But after next Labor Day, we also hope to hand off any field organizers we hire to these Senate or other statewide campaigns, in part to help them understand the data we’ve collected and placed into VAN for their use. All the data we enter into VAN are classified as public, which will allow any Democratic candidate who uses VAN to access it. Laws pertaining to election protection changed in the rash of new election laws Republican legislatures passed this year and we would like to get ahead of that next year.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is trying to reinstitute best field practices, such as canvassing with people who look like the voters we are talking to and targeting former voters thrown off the rolls. A lot of these got forgotten because of the Covid restrictions in the last cycle, and we have an entire cycle of campaign staffers who were trained without the benefit of actually getting to do field. That’s why it is so important to start knocking on doors now, and not wait until a month or so before the primaries. We have a lot of make-up work to do. Can you help?
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!